ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
from the State of Matto Grosso enormous stretches of 
land on the opposite side of its natural, indisputable geo¬ 
graphical western boundary, the main stream, Araguaya, 
as well as the isolated settlement of Concep^ao, on the 
opposite side of the Araguaya River, which was un¬ 
doubtedly in the State of Para. One had only to glance 
at a map — bad as maps were — to see that in both cases 
the claim was an absurd one. In the case of Concep^ao 
it was perfectly ridiculous. The Para Government held 
the place with a military force and occupied the territory 
with complete jurisdiction. In a more peaceful manner 
the State of Matto Grosso was in possession of the entire 
territory west of the Rio Grande do Araguaya, which the 
people of Goyaz said belonged to them. On the west the 
Araguaya formed a perfect geographical boundary from 
the Southern Goyaz boundary, where the Araguaya had 
its birth, as far as the most northern point of the State; 
whereas, were one to accept the supposed Goyaz boundary 
formed by the Rio das Mortes, a tributary of lesser vol¬ 
ume than the main stream, it would involve an imaginary, 
compound, boundary line up the Paredao stream, then up 
the Rio Barreiros, then an imaginary straight line from 
north to south across mountainous country, winding its 
way east until it met the Serra dos Bahus, then again 
northeast over undetermined country, then along the 
Rio Apore and eventually joining the Paranahyba 
River. 
Curiously enough, nearly all the Brazilian Govern¬ 
ment maps, and all the foreign ones copied, of course, 
from the Brazilian — all remarkable for their inaccura¬ 
cies — gave the wrong boundary as the correct one! In 
any case, both the States of Matto Grosso and Para were 
in actual occupation of the respective disputed territories, 
and Goyaz was much too poor to afford fighting for them, 
so that I fear her most unreasonable claims will ever 
remain unsatisfied. 
102 
